Le Trong Tan

Le Trong Tan (3 October 1914-5 December 1986) was a general of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) during the Vietnam War. He was appreciated as one of the finest commanders of North Vietnam during the war, even by Vo Nguyen Giap, who was the leader of North Vietnam's armed forces during the conflict.

Biography
Le Trong Tan was born in Ha Dong in the Tonkin region of French Indochina (present-day Vietnam) on 3 October 1914. In 1945, he joined the Viet Minh during their struggle against Japan and France during World War II and the Vietnamese War of Independence - he led a brigade at the decisive 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. He commanded North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops in the Plain of Jars in Laos during the Vietnam War and assisted in the repulse of a United States and South Vietnamese invasion during Operation Lam Son 719 in 1971. In 1973 he was made Deputy Chief of the General Staff and aided in the 1975 fall of Saigon and the final campaign against South Vietnam, and during the 1975-1991 Cambodian-Vietnamese War he led troops against the Democratic Kampuchea government. Le Trong Tan died at the age of 72 in 1986.